Benin

Access to clean drinking water and safe sanitation in Benin has been subject to considerable progress since the 1990s, in particular in rural areas, where coverage is higher than in many other African countries. New strategies to increase water supply in rural and urban areas have been adopted in 2005 and 2006.However, challenges remain. In Benin in 2013, more than 7 million people lack access to improved sanitation facilities and more than 3,5 million people lack access to improved drinking water sources. This is 36% percent of the total population.

About WASH Alliance Benin

Access to clean drinking water and safe sanitation in Benin has been subject to considerable progress since the 1990s, in particular in rural areas, where coverage is higher than in many other African countries. New strategies to increase water supply in rural and urban areas have been adopted in 2005 and 2006.However, challenges remain. In Benin in 2013, more than 7 million people lack access to improved sanitation facilities and more than 3,5 million people lack access to improved drinking water sources. This is 36% percent of the total population.

Some highlights of our work so far

Lobby and Advocacy

In Benin, we place much emphasis on lobbying for higher WASH funding. Especially as local governments had limited access to and were unable to mobilize their portion of the Support Fund for Municipality Development or “Fonds d’Appui au Développement Communal (FADeC)” assigned to drinking water, hygiene and sanitation. To address this challenge, we financially contributed to a project that aims at building capacities of local governments to design their own WASH projects and to raise their own funds. The fundamental result of this advocacy work is that parts of the national WASH Budget are now transferred to the local governments.

Hygiene campaigns

Over the last years, we have significantly increased the number of people, especially in rural areas, that are aware of the need to develop and use improved sanitation facilities such as wash-areas connected to sumps. We were able to do so mainly through numerous hygiene media campaigns.